Two Boys

I have two boys.

They love video games.

And dirt.

And being loud.

They are definitely two little boys.  They are also two very different boys.

At our church Halloween party the kids were given candy as prizes for the carnival games.  As Alan got each piece I don't think he waited any longer than 30 seconds before putting it in his mouth.  Hyrum however made it through the whole carnival and the truck or treat, before eating a single piece of candy.

This year we have the kids in two different schools.  That means two fall carnivals which can set our family back about $60.  We wanted to support each of the kids equally but were not wanting to spend an arm and a leg.  We told the kids that they had to earn money for tickets at the carnival.  At our house when the kids do extra jobs they can earn a "dollar" that they can turn in for 10 minutes of video game time.  We told the kids that they could instead turn in a "dollar" for a carnival ticket. 

We gave the kids lots of opportunities to earn the tickets.  As soon as Hyrum would earn two or three "dollars" he would ask if he could go play the Wii.  We would remind him of the school carnival coming up to which he would immediately reply "I don't want to go!"  Hyrum wanting the immediate gratification could not wait until the carnival for his enjoyment.  Eventually we told Hyrum that we wouldn't go to his carnival but that we were going to Alan's (Hyrum was OK with this until we drove by his school on the day of the carnival.  Too late!).

When we went to Alan's carnival, Alan had diligently earned a lot of tickets.  He had 3 times as many as Hyrum.  However, as we approached each booth ready to show Hyrum how much fun Alan could have because he had saved his money, Alan kept deciding that each booth was not worth his hard earned tickets and ended up going home with tickets still in his pocket.  Hyrum was not to be deterred and spent the few tickets that he had within minutes.  Hyrum enjoyed every booth he could but we had to twist Alan's arm to get him to spend his tickets.

Two boys.

Two very different boys.

I was going through some old pictures putting together a blog book and I noticed that there were a lot of pictures that I had taken intending to blog about but I never did.  So here is my attempt to catch up.

John grew up in a town called Norco so when we were driving through Vernal, Utah and saw this sign we had to stop and take a picture.  John asked where they got the name from but the owner said that was what it was named when he bought it.

This next post would be titled

Protected at Home  

or  

Signs That You Live With Little Boys

This picture could also be titled "Signs That You Live With Little Boys"  I found this in the dirt in our back yard one day and decided I would rather just throw it away than ask my kids about it.

(I know this picture is at least two years old because it was taken in our last house.)

A Real Hero

A few weeks ago Hyrum was went out front to do something, when he hurriedly came back in and said "Mom! You've got to see this!" When your six year old son tells you this you never know what you will see but I was expecting something along the lines of a large bug. Instead I saw this.

 

I have no idea how they got into our cul-de-sac but it was 90 degrees outside and the poor things didn't have any water.  The ducks were actually panting.  Did you know that ducks pant?  I had no idea.  Along with another neighbor we flooded part of the yard so they could get a drink and cool off, but we knew it was only a temporary solution.  Worried about these little ducklings we decided to heard them down the street, around the corner, and across the street to the park.

Hyrum loved the herding.  He thought it was great that he was allowed to chase them.  We kept them marching through the park to the golf course, and down the green until finally . . .

 They made it safe to the pond.  We were so glad to see them safe at the pond.  Hyrum kept say "I'm a real hero."

Yes Hyrum you are.

Hooray for Fry's!

We just got back from vacation and I needed to run to the store. You know how it is when you've been gone for two weeks. We had no milk, eggs, bread, the basics. While at my Frys check out line I noticed something new. They did something that I have only ever seen in Utah. Their Cosmopolitan magazines, you know the ones that usually have mostly naked women on the cover, right at eye level for little boys. Well, they had the magazine covered up except for the title. Yea for Frys! I think they have become the only grocery store I will take my kids to.

Does your Fry's do this too? Let Fry's know that you appreciate this and ask them to do it in all their stores.

Overheard

Me:  Have you heard any other stories about Daniel?

Hyrum:  Oh yeah, Daniel and the Lion King

---------------------

Alan:  I can't find my sandals anywhere!

Me:  Maybe you should try looking in your closet.  That's where they are supposed to be.

Alan:  Well It's pretty obvious to me that I never put my sandals in the closet.

Motivation

They always started out in a serious racing position but I think it
always pretty much ended with them falling in the pool.

 The kids did swim team this summer.  Hyrum could hardly swim at the beginning but it was good for him to practice a lot.  They were excited about it and enjoyed going to practice.  The kids didn't really understand what a meet was or really what it meant to compete at first.  About half way though they realized that they were getting last in all of the races, but got ribbons anyway.  When it was over the kids weren't particularly sad but Alan said that he didn't want to compete the next week.

Being the sensitive mom that I am I told him that they were going to compete anyway.  Of course I gave them the lecture that the only person they were competing against was themselves.  The next week I told them that if they
beat their time in all of the races we would go out to ice cream afterwards.

The first week Hyrum looked like this a lot. 

Every few feet Hyrum would stop and hold onto the lane line to catch his breath.  After the promise of ice cream the next week he looked more like this.

Hyrum would start heading over to the lane marker and we would all yell at him to not stop and keep going.  For the first time ever Hyrum made it across the pool with out stopping.  You should have seen the look on his face when we told him he knocked 40 seconds off of his time.  In the end both of the kids improved their time in every single race.  I was so proud of them.  And best of all they were so proud of themselves.

Here are the proud boys with their ribbons.  Now I want to now where my ribbon is
for sitting out in 95 degree temps watching them.